Educational · 8 min read
How Much Does a WiFi Router Cost to Run? (2026 Energy Data)
A typical Wi-Fi router costs about $15.81 a year to run at the April 2026 US average rate of 18.05¢/kWh. That works out to $1.32 a month. The wattage is tiny, around 10 watts, but a router never powers off. It draws that load all 8,760 hours of the year, and the always-on runtime is the entire reason the cost is worth knowing.
Wattage by router type
A Wi-Fi router is a low-wattage device. What separates the tiers is the number of radios, antennas, and wired ports, not raw horsepower. These figures come from manufacturer spec sheets and the EIA Electric Power Monthly rate data that underpins every cost below.
Basic single-band (ISP-provided): 4 to 7 watts. The small box your provider hands you. Dual-band Wi-Fi 5/6 (typical home router): 8 to 12 watts. This is the most common tier. The TP-Link Archer AX73 draws about 10 watts; the Netgear Nighthawk RAX50 about 12. The RunWatts calculator defaults to 10 watts for this reason. Tri-band mesh node: 10 to 15 watts per unit, and a mesh system uses two or three of them. Gaming and Wi-Fi 7 flagship: 15 to 20 watts, and the heaviest models with multiple high-power radios and a USB drive attached can push past 25.
Cost per month and per year
All figures assume 24/7 operation at the April 2026 US residential average of 18.05¢/kWh. A router running all year racks up 8,760 hours, so annual cost is simply watts times 8.76 times the rate.
5W basic: $0.66 a month, $7.91 a year. 10W typical dual-band: $1.32 a month, $15.81 a year. 12W Wi-Fi 6: $1.58 a month, $18.97 a year. 15W flagship: $1.98 a month, $23.72 a year. 20W gaming router: $2.64 a month, $31.62 a year.
Tip
The number to remember
The always-on math: why a 10W router beats a 75W curling iron
A router draws far less power than almost any appliance you own. So why does it cost more per year than a hair tool that pulls seven times the wattage? Runtime.
A 10-watt router running 24/7 uses 87.6 kWh a year and costs $15.81. A 75-watt curling iron used 20 minutes a day uses 9.125 kWh and costs $1.65. The router draws one-seventh the watts at any instant, but it runs about 72 times as many hours. The result is roughly ten times the annual cost. This is the flip side of the duty-cycle rule: high-wattage tools used for minutes land in rounding-error territory, while low-wattage devices that never switch off quietly accumulate.
The full home network adds up faster than the router alone
The router is rarely the only always-on box on the shelf. The modem, mesh satellites, and a network drive all draw power 24/7, and together they form an invisible cluster that runs whether you're home or not.
Basic setup (router + cable modem, about 17W): $26.88 a year. Mesh setup (gateway + two satellites + modem, about 36W): $56.92 a year. Power-user setup (mesh + an always-on NAS, about 76W): $120.17 a year.
The network-attached storage drive is the swing factor. A two-bay NAS idles around 20 to 30 watts ($32 to $47 a year), and a four-bay unit with the disks spinning can hit 40 to 50 watts ($63 to $79 a year). That single device often costs more to run than the router, modem, and mesh nodes combined. If you don't need 24/7 file access, scheduling the NAS to sleep overnight is the one move in this cluster that actually saves real money.
The same router in different states
A 10-watt router uses the same 87.6 kWh everywhere. The cost changes only because the rate does:
Louisiana (12.44¢/kWh): $10.90. Texas (14.80¢/kWh): $12.96. US average (18.05¢/kWh): $15.81. New York (24.40¢/kWh): $21.37. California (31.01¢/kWh): $27.16. Hawaii (39.79¢/kWh): $34.86.
Hawaii is 3.2 times the cost of Louisiana for the identical router drawing identical watts. The state rates guide has the full 2026 breakdown. Because the device runs constantly, a high-rate state feels the difference more here than it does on a minutes-per-day appliance, but even in Hawaii a router stays under $35 a year.
Should you turn your router off at night?
It's the obvious question for an always-on device, and the math is straightforward. Powering a 10-watt router off for 8 hours a night drops its runtime to 16 hours a day, which uses 58.4 kWh a year and costs $10.54. The saving is $5.27 a year. On a 15-watt flagship the saving climbs to about $7.91.
Five to eight dollars a year is real but small, and it comes with friction: the router needs a minute or two to reboot and reconnect every morning, and any smart-home gear, security cameras, or scheduled backups that rely on the network go dark while it's off. For most households the reconnect hassle isn't worth the few dollars. If you want the saving without the friction, a smart plug on a schedule automates the overnight shutoff, but only if nothing on your network needs to stay reachable.
What actually moves the number
1. Satellite internet, not the router. A Starlink dish draws 45 to 75 watts even sitting idle, which is $71 to $119 a year, four to seven times a standard router. If you're on satellite, the dish is the real always-on cost on your network, not the Wi-Fi box plugged in beside it.
2. The NAS and the mesh count, the router barely does. Adding a network drive can triple the cost of your whole network. Two or three mesh satellites double the router's share. The base router is the smallest piece of the bill once the cluster grows.
3. Old hardware drifts higher. Manufacturer specs are measured new. Aging routers, dust-clogged vents, and firmware that keeps radios at full power can push a rated 10-watt unit toward 15 or 20 over time. A plug-in meter confirms the real draw in about a minute.
The router calculator runs the same formula at your state's rate and your router's wattage. The standby power guide covers the rest of the always-on devices that draw power around the clock, and the appliance wattage chart shows where every household device lands. A router isn't where the savings are. It's a steady dollar a month that buys something running every hour of every day, which is about as good a deal as electricity gets.